The Flaming Lips this weekend, enthusiastically deemed by Q Magazine as one of “the 50 bands you need to see before you die”.

And they say that without one scintilla of bullshit. The Flaming Lips are extraordinary and one of the best things Oklahoma City produced in maybe the past hundred years.

There have been bands that have pushed the envelope, taken the trip one step further, painted with a new box of colors. Flaming Lips have been consistently pushing and exploring for a very long time and have accomplished amazing things along the way – and have the legacy of some milestone recordings to prove it. The key to the continued success of a band, any band, is that ever-present need to explore, to stay vital and to take chances to do yourself one better. Which is why each album is an adventure on its own. The Flaming lips of 1983 is a lot different than The Flaming Lips in this 1996 Phoenix Festival Concert.

And The Flaming Lips of 1996 is a lot different than the Flaming Lips of 2017, with their latest, Oczy Mlody, further confounding their audience, particularly after a collaboration with Miley Cyrus which no doubt perplexed a lot of people.

But they never cease to amaze and that’s what keeps us all coming back for more.

And because there’s a new album out and because it’s summer and festival season, there is a full tour schedule for the band, taking them around the U.S. starting in March and picking up again in September through October, but putting them smack in the middle of Europe starting on June 23rd with an appearance at Glastonbury.

I think it would be fair to say, if you haven’t caught them yet, or haven’t caught them this year, and if you happen to be heading to Glasto or the Vida Festival in Spain on the 30th, go see them. Don’t even think about not going. Just do it.

Pick a day. Any day.

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Gordon Skene, two-time Grammy Nominee and archivist runs The Gordon Skene Sound Archive and this website, which is dedicated to preserving and encouraging an interest in history and historic news, events, and cultural aspects of our society. Past Daily is the only place on the Internet where you can hear a Nixon speech, listen to an interview with John Cassavettes or play a broadcast of Charles Munch rehearsing the Boston Symphony in 1950, all in the same place. It's living history and it's timeless.